Memorial Day Pro Class

What a weekend of racing in Arkansas. This is a picture of the start at Sherwood MX Pro Class. There were 22 250+IBk-s and 19 125+IBk-s. All the riders were really fast! They raced for 10 laps and almost every rider was on the same lap. Talk about fast. If you got a good start, you had a chance to win, if you got a bad start, you had to settle for whatever you could get. There were battles for every position with high flying action on the 90+IBk tabletop and the bus jump. This is the biggest and best line up of Pros in memory for Arkansas, even the hay day of Burns park wasn+IBk-t any better than this. The Johnson+IBk-s and Lea+IBk-s really pulled out all the stops. The track had been reworked with all the jumps rebuilt and gave the racers plenty of lift for BIG air jumps. Even the weather cooperated with nary a sign of rain all day, just beautiful sunshine and comfortable temperatures. All of the classes were well represented with good competition to watch all day long. Bill Lea told me they were even going to do better for Labor Day. With a $10,000 Pro purse up for grabs, it should bring out even more. The Arkansas riders rode their hearts out but couldn+IBk-t get the good starts and good rides in the same motos but even Jimmy Gaddis, former National Supercross Champion had his hands full and only managed 5th place in some of the motos. Look for results soon on the Tony Wynn MX page soon. If you have pictures you would like to share, please e-mail them to me at supercenter@cablelynx.com.

Bill Lea getting ready to cut the starting line area.

Thacker Moto X Park at Smithville, Arkansas was the site of this weeks Midsouth Series Race. Friday night Armstrong Delivery put up the money for a $500 purse for the Arenacross style race. The races were great! Jason Hyde pulled the wholeshot on his Suzuki with John Adam, Blake Keeton, and Ryan St Cyr in tow. They battled hard but Hyde tired and pulled off leaving the finishing order after 10 laps, Keeton, St Cyr and Adam for the top three postions. The second moto again saw Hyde with the lead Adam in second, and St Cyr third. Adam was closing on Hyde and the two where literally flying through the whoops but at about lap eight you could see the signs of who was in better shape and Hyde again fell way off the pace and Adam bobbled letting Cyr and Keeton by with the finishing order in the overall St Cyr, Keeton, and Adam in the paying postions.

Sunday brought cold weather rain but lots of competition, even off the bikes and Blake Kennedy and Ryan St Cyr in the pro class had some confortations. Kennedy put a move on St Cyr in a corner trying to pass and took Ryan out. Ryan remounted and after taking the checker flag, proceeded towards Blake. Both riders dropped their bikes and punches were thrown by both riders and when Blake Kennedy+IBk-s father approached he was hit by a fist from St Cyr. When Mike Lambert (Midsouth Series Pormoter) was asked why they weren+IBk-t disqualified for fighting, his answer was +IBw it happened after the checker flag .... I have to use my discrection+IB0.Some other rider comments in the same class thought they should have been DQ+IBk-d and that since the riders had come so far, they would not be DQ+IBk-d. The rains came during the first pro moto but subsided for the rest of the races except for a drizzle once in a while. With the heavy rains on Saturday night cancelling the Freestyle competition, Mike Lambert added the purse to the pro class payout on Sunday paying thru 8th place. The rain was actually a benefit to the track as the track was very dry during practice on Saturday and they watered the starting area several times on Sunday..If you want to get away from it all, try Thacker Moto X park, it is a big area with a fish pond on the property and no close neighbors to bother with our moto x racing. The Thackers were very friendly and helpful and Roy even came to the line and thanked each rider individually for coming to his track (at least in the classes we were in). If you want an idea of the area, think of the movie Deliverance.

PRO CLASS START AT BURNTHILL

Some great racing at Burnthill Motocross. This is the start of one of the Pro class motos. Pictured left to right are: 571 Kevin Vines, 435 Blake Keeton, 32 Jimmy Gaddis, 10 John Adam, and 916. Behind the pack are Michael Gage, Bud Wilson and Craig Mayhan. Jimmy Gaddis showed his Championship talents and won all four pro class motos. Photo by Jan Adam

John Adam wins a thriller at Donaldson MX

Donaldson MX 4-27-03 brought out beautiful skies, a good crowd and some great racing. The Pro class wasn+IBk-t large in size but it had the fastest riders in the state lined up. John Adam pulled three hole shots on the day and ran out front in all three motos before tiring and being passed in some very aggressive moves by Blake Keeton of Donaldson. The final moto of the day for the Pros was the 125 class, Andrew Cannon pulled the hole shot with John Adam on the outside, Blake Keeton trying to press the middle and Luke Gorrell flying up from the far outside. John stayed even with Andrew and railed the inside burm of the next corner, a right hander with Andrew and John bumping bars and Blake trying to find room inside only to hit the tires. John was flying with Andrew staying close and watching for a mistake and probing for a pass for about 3 laps and John pulled about a 10 bike lead with Blake now pushing Andrew and trying to get around him. Blake put a very aggressive block pass on Andrew in the corner before the triple with a little paint being traded. Andrew stayed very close and it looked like he wanted to give some back to Blake but Blake wanted to reel in John but John showed he is getting back in shape after one year of not racing and kept the gas on and put a little daylight between the riders to take the win by about 3 seconds. It was a great race from start to finish. Congratulations to all the riders for a well fought battle to the checker flag.

There were several other races over the weekend like Cedar Hill and Heber Springs. If you would like to submit your account of the race, I will be glad to publish here on Arkansas Motocross.

Tony Wynn MX at Sherwood, Arkansas April 12, 2003. The day was beautiful, I mean spring had sprung and the breeze was blowing, the wood ducks flying and landing in the swamp and MX races were about to start. Jimmy Johnson and Bill Lea had done lots of work to the track like reworking the whoops, refacing jumps and even putting a tunnel under the finish line jump. Some one kept watering late into the night (even though Bill said it was enough when he left) so practice was a little muddy, but it sure kept the dust away. Some of the racers had spent to much time partying at the Dallas Supercross and decided not to race but spectate instead. My favorite race of the day was the 125 Intermediate class with the top three riders Tolland Weems, Ryan Berry and Brian Green all riding for the Supercenter. Congratulations! John Adam was riding his new YZ450 and is picking up his speed each week and put in the fastest lap of the race after stalling in a corner. We even had our ATW (all terrain wagon) Red Wagon out for the grandchild with grandma pulling it all over the pits. The crowd was a little light with some of the local racers going to Beau Bridge in south Louisiana for the Mid south series race but every one seemed to have a great time. Thanks Bill & Jimmy for helping make it a great day.